Friction

Why do slurs offend even when you’re not using them to insult anyone, and what does that reveal about how meaning, context, and social norms actually work in language? My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy . 1. Guest Ernest Lepore is a philosopher and cognitive scientist and a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. 2. Interview Summary Ernest Lepore opens by framing his book proje...

What does it take not just to do the right thing, but to do it virtuously—and what do achievement and anger reveal about the ethical costs of injustice? My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy . 1. Guest Sukaina Hirji is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Her philosophical research focuses primarily on ancient philosophy, Aristotelian ethics, and contempora...

Do we need a single, primitive “Grounding” relation to explain metaphysical dependence, or can a plural toolkit of more specific relations do the job while still making sense of emergence and physicalism? My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy . 1. Guest Jessica Wilson is Professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her area of research focuses on a range of topics in...

If determinism rules out real alternatives, what could still make us genuinely responsible for what we do? My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy . 1. Guest John Martin Fischer is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. His philosophical work focuses on free will, moral responsibility, as well as death, near-death experiences, immortality, and more...

If freedom isn’t just about having options but about not living at someone else’s mercy, what does that imply for free will, responsibility, and the political institutions we should build? My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy . 1. Guest Philip Pettit is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National...

Can Buddhist and Daoist ideas about emptiness, no-self, and transformation be made philosophically rigorous without collapsing into nihilism or contradiction? My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy . 1. Guest Jenny Hung is a visiting assistant professor at New York University, Abu Dhabi, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, working with Yao Zhihua. She has two...